


All of Us

by dugindeep (hotsauce)



Category: CW Network RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, M/M, Mild Language, Minor Character Death, Minor Violence, Multi, Parent Death, Threesome - F/M/M, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-19
Updated: 2013-11-19
Packaged: 2018-01-02 01:08:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1050714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hotsauce/pseuds/dugindeep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <img/>
  </p>
</div>When Danneel transfers to a new high school, she just wants to get through the year and remain under the radar. She never expected Jared or Jensen's attempts to befriend her, nor the chance to finally be herself again and build a strong relationship between all three of them. Written for <a href="http://polybigbang.livejournal.com/">PolyBigBang 2013</a>.
            </blockquote>





	All of Us

**Author's Note:**

> Most definitely, thanks to my artist [uh_tiramisu](http://uh_tiramisu.livejournal.com) for such a lovely collaboration! I’m in love with the art and truly appreciate the hard work and talent that went into all the pieces. I’ve loved chatting over this and hope to continue! [Art Post](http://uh-tiramisu.livejournal.com/2491.html)

“Are you okay?”

Danneel feels her cheeks heat up, she’s certain her eyes are blown as wide as possible, and it’s suddenly a little difficult to swallow through the thickness of her throat. Jared, however, appears completely unfazed. He’s amused, actually, which only makes this all the more awkward.

“Come again?” she asks.

Jared moves closer, thin fingers wrapping around her elbow. The touch is gentle, safe, which goes along with how carefully he says, “I asked if you were okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replies with an insistent nod. “How about you?”

“Why’re you asking if I’m …”

“I mean, you’re the one who just asked me out.”

Jared’s smiles easily, with that one quick glance that always puts the other girls at ease, especially Jensen. Yeah, Jensen, the BFF who never seems to be out of earshot and is in fact leaning against the row of lockers that start the long walk of B Hall. “I did,” he says easily, as if he were merely concerned with today’s weather forecast.

Danneel’s own feelings are a bit overcast with a possibility for thunderstorms because she does not like any of the reasons that could be behind Jared’s proposal for an evening at Johnny’s Shake Shack. Danneel's new to this high school, but she isn’t deaf, dumb, or blind. She's heard all the inside jokes that a trip to the Shake Shack always leads to an evening at Parkers’ Point and after that, girls often lose their underwear. She is also aware that Jared Padalecki is a Regular Joe kind of guy who likes sports yet doesn’t commit to any past gym class, is always cordial to classmates, and while just short of being a know-it-all or class clown, he is certainly whip-smart and fun.

She also has the eyes to see the way Jared looks at Jensen Ackles, or how they are always trailing one another from class to class, whether they are in them together or not. Come to think of it, Jensen is now watching them with something akin to fondness—no, he is watching Jared, certainly. Jensen Ackles has never spoken a word to her, not even when they were stuck in that trio for biology prep two weeks ago.

No, there had to be some other odd reason that Jared bothered to even talk to her at this moment. “Is this some hazing ritual?”

His eyebrows crease and she swears he's beginning to frown, as if he were actually hurt by the thought.

“For what?”

“Basketball? You’re tall enough.”

“It’s also March. The season’s almost over.”

“Baseball?” Danneel knows spring means spring training. She’s learned a thing or two from all of Gino’s extracurricular activities or his ranting at the TV even while she was busy studying algebra or painting her nails, because Lord knows that’s better than caring about a little white ball and bat.

Jared pauses and then a strange smile forms. “No, I’m not on any of the teams.”

“Yearbook Club then. Either way, I’m not in the mood to play the role of _New Girl in Town_ , so you know, just pick on someone else.”

Danneel is instantly embarrassed to have flown off like that. Judging by Jared’s lowered eyes, she’d cut right through him. Still, she’s not about to let his All-American eyes make her feel sorry for standing her own ground.

 _Poor baby_ , she muses as she steps around him, and barely spares Jensen a glance as she continues down the main hallway so she can go home. She’ll blame this one on Mr. Flannery’s inability to stay on topic, forcing her to stay behind after class to ask for clarification on the weekend assignment.

“I don’t know why you bothered,” she can hear Jensen say, followed by Jared’s pissy, “Dude, shut up.”

Danneel's next series of steps are more pointed, rough-heeled on the tile, and she marches out of the front door with her head held high for avoiding that bullet.

“Hey.”

Danneel doesn’t bother to lift her gaze away from the bottom of her locker where she’s digging around for her geography workbook. No one willingly talks to her yet; apparently, January to April isn’t long enough for a new girl to make friends. She’s still seen as a cold princess just because her dad’s job transfer moved them from the high-end suburbs of Baton Rouge to this low-key Texas town, and it meant they could afford that nice house up on the hill on the edge of town.

There’s a cleared throat, garbled mumble, then stuttered sigh. “I said hey.”

She kneels back and looks up, then freezes.

Jensen Ackles stops rubbing the back of his neck and offers a stilted wave before dropping both arms and shoving his hands into the front pockets of his jeans.

“Hey, back,” Danneel says, tightly. She’s not sure what kind of mission these two are on, but she’s certain Jared’s not far away; maybe he was the mastermind of this whole garbage and that’s why Jensen seems so uncomfortable to be standing here.

“How’s it going?” His voice cracks, and along with the slanted, shy smile, Danneel feels her stomach flutter.

 _NO!_ she internally shouts. She’s seen how girls look at Jensen like he’s a college boy who they’ll bend over backwards for, just to share his letterman’s jacket and fraternity pin. He’s cute, sure, if you like the blond-hair and incredibly green-eyed sort of thing.

She clears her throat because this is ridiculous. Jared and Jensen are always one step beside the other, and she’s not up for games right now.

“I’m fine.” Danneel gets back to where she’s hunting for that stupid workbook and imagines Jensen spinning away to make some other snide comment to Jared like he did a week ago when Jared tried to talk to her.

Jensen does neither of those things. Miraculously, he asks, “Got a good weekend lined up?”

She rolls her eyes because she does not. A bunch of geography homework, an English Lit paper to finally pull out of her ass, and family obligations. “Yeah, sure, I have to go watch my brother’s batting practice.”

“Younger or older?”

Danneel merely stares up at him.

“Your brother.”

“Yeah, I got that. What’s it matter?”

“Just curious.” Jensen wrenches one shoulder up in a self-conscious shrug. “Making conversation.”

“You’re kinda awful at it,” she says, hoping it’ll shoo him away.

He lets out a terse laugh – well, it’s actually a nice little rumble of a noise, but it actually makes Danneel feel awful to have it make her smile. “Don’t I know it.”

“Then why are you trying to converse with me?”

Jensen’s face becomes this strange mix of pale around his eyes and mouth, yet pink across his cheekbones. “Why does any guy converse with a girl?”

Danneel stands and clutches whatever books are in her hands to her chest, giving up on the geography workbook hunt. There’s something earnest in his words, in the way he keeps meeting her eyes then looking around her face, her hair, down to her chest—though not too low.

He motions at his own neck. “I like your necklace.”

She reaches up and closes one hand around the oval locket, thumbing at the intricate design at the back of it. “Thanks. It was my mom’s.”

“Was?”

“Yeah, she’s gone.” Danneel clears her throat because she hadn’t been prepared to say those words; she can’t remember ever saying them so easily, really.

“I’m sorry.”

Somehow, she believes him. It feels awkward, sharing a moment with a classmate. Four months in this building and no one’s said more than a sentence to her.

She hasn’t said much either, she realizes, and maybe that’s where all the bitter opinions of her come in.

“You know if you wanna talk about it, I mean, I still have my mom, so I don’t really get it, but I’m here, if you ever wanted to …”

Danneel closes her eyes and turns back to her locker. “Thanks, but I’m good,” she lies. A moment later she has her backpack all set – fuck geography and screw algebra. She doubts she’ll ever need to know how many miles and hours between Portland and Baltimore. She can just Google that when she needs it.

“I gotta go,” she insists and hurries away from him, only belatedly realizing she’s going the wrong way. Still, she continues on to the south exit and then jogs across the school grounds until she meets up with Gino by their mom’s old car in the parking lot.

“Hey, squirt,” he says as she whips around him to launch her backpack into the back seat and slide in as the front passenger. He sighs and walks around the car to the driver’s side. As he starts up the car, he gives her a long look. “Good day at school?”

She hates how he’s turned all macho once they got to this school. He’s tall, built, and sporty. He made friends in an instant when he showed off in gym class, or so the girls who sit in front of her during biology have gossiped about. He’s also made himself some lovely hangers-on, and she’s recently been forced to listen to the cheerleaders next to her in algebra whisper about who will ask him to Spring Fling.

Back home, he was low-key and she was the social butterfly. Everything’s changed in Texas. No one knows her and they instantly assume she’s trouble from the big city.

Once he’s in the driver’s seat, Gino flicks her ear. It’s not as sharp as it could be, but it’s annoying all the same.

“God, you’re immature,” she complains, swatting his arm.

The car’s still rumbling, yet Gino doesn’t take it out of park. He asseses her. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, except that you’re just sitting here,” she whines. “The sooner we get going, the sooner I’ll be home and away from your gross Axe Armor.”

He chuckles and finally gets the car moving. Danneel slides down in her seat and mouths the words to every song they hear on the twenty-minute ride home.

“You’re being all responsible now, right?” Dad asks as he smiles and leans down to kiss Danneel’s forehead.

Before, she would roll her eyes and slyly smirk, thinking of all the trouble she could get up to in his absence. Now, it’s different – she’s different – and she doesn’t want him to leave. She squeezes her fingers around the handles of his overnight bag and watches him tug on a blazer. It’s dark plaid with black corduroy elbow patches. She remembers a time when she would huff at him for owning such an atrocity, but she’s thankful that she’ll never forget how it fit his shoulders and hung well around his sides.

“Right?” he asks, trying to take the bag, but her grip won’t let up. “Danneel? You okay?”

“Yeah, just be safe,” she says in a rush, wrapping her arms around his waist and tucking herself in close to him.

He chuckles awkwardly, but rubs her back in soothing patterns. “It’s just one night. I’ll be back before you know it.”

She’s embarrassed for reacting like this and pulls away as soon as she can without alarming him. He smiles and tucks hair behind her ear, then leans away to yell up the front staircase. “Gino! You be sure to eat something normal while I’m gone.”

“’Kay, Dad,” comes the distracted reply, and Dad seems satisfied enough that he just smiles at Danneel once more and leaves.

Danneel stands in the foyer, stares at the door as if she can see him through it, and listens to Dad’s car rumble to life just before it moves further down the drive and out of earshot. She doesn’t have time to turn around before Gino is pounding down the stairs and jumping off the last few with a whoop.

“We are on!” he shouts, fist pumps, and runs back through the house to kitchen.

Slowly, Danneel follows and hears him open the back door and apparently let in a whole parade of people with the noise everyone is making. When she reaches the kitchen, it’s just a few guys from baseball, all looking like they’re ready to party with the cases of beer tucked under each arm and the class of shirts each are wearing – tight v-necks, fanciful collared shirts, one guy even has a skin-tight striped button-up with a skinny tie.

When Gino looks up to her, she narrows her eyes and he frowns in return. Not much has to be said; he’s likely judging her since she was the one always sneaking people in and out when their parents vacationed, and he would just go off to a friend’s house for a weekend full of games. Roles reversed, and she’s not certain how much she can reprimand him. She knows what it’s like to well-liked in school and to do anything to maintain that status. And while she now unfortunately knows the other side of that coin and hates it, she’s not about to take it out on him.

His friends are unpacking and passing bottles of liquor, and Gino gets his hands on a bottle of crystal clear vodka before it gets past him. They elbow him for it back, but he shrugs them each off and slides it across the counter to her.

She breathes deep and feels immediate disappointment that she has nowhere else to go and that she has to get liquor from her brother, but she supposes it’s better than nothing at all. With a small smile she waves the bottle in thanks and heads up to her room.

As the party picks up downstairs, loud bass notes of the top radio hits and voices getting louder to be heard over it, Danneel wastes most of the night watching whatever cheesy movie she can stomach until commercials hit and she switches to another one. She slowly sips the vodka straight, barely getting over the sharp flavor, yet unwilling to go downstairs for anything else.

An hour or so later, she’s feeling loose enough that she may just have the courage to do it. Except she can hear the feminine giggles up and down the hall just outside her closed bedroom door. She’s certain someone’s using Gino’s room to get laid, and the door to Dad’s office just shut tight with another giggle. Danneel wants nothing less than to run into any one like that.

She stretches out on her bed and flips through the channels when her bedroom door quickly opens. She jumps in shock and spills vodka on her and the comforter, and quickly picks up the ends of her shirt to keep the liquor from dripping onto her jeans as well.

“Oh, God, I’m so sorry,” comes on a hurried apology.

Danneel winces with the wetness seeping through her jeans and she’s embarrassed to realize that she definitely can’t leave her room now or else people will think she had an accident.

“Are you an idiot?” asks another voice, and Danneel is now absolutely ashamed to be caught with soaked pants.

She barely looks up with a sigh then double-takes to see Jared pushing past Jensen to grab a towel still folded in the laundry basket in the corner. Jared comes over to the bed, sits beside Danneel, and dabs at some of the wet denim then lifts her shirt from her skin to dry it a bit. She’s frozen as he helps, surprised that they’re both here in her room, let alone helping. “I’m not an idiot,” she mumbles, glancing at them both.

“I know you’re not,” Jared murmurs back. “I was talking to Numbnuts still standing in the doorway.”

Danneel looks to Jensen and he’s biting his lower lip, not moving or even making himself known other than awkwardly hanging out next to her dresser. From the corner of her eye, she sees a few of those cheerleaders from algebra stalk past with a pointed laugh, and Danneel realizes that it looks like Jared’s going up her shirt with Jensen just watching them. Plus the door is wide open, and she can immediately see her bad reputation at school getting even dirtier.

She jumps off the bed, rushes to the doorway, and slams the door in the girls’ faces with a terse, “Rude!”

“Well, that’s not gonna help,” Jared says. He’s wide-eyed and still holding the towel in his hands. He motions it at the door. “Now they’ll think the main even is starting with the door closed.”

“Well it’s not,” she declares. She marches back to the bed, grabs the vodka, and goes to the window-side bench that overlooks the backyard. “No events of any kind will be happening in this room. Especially with you two.”

“Why especially us two?” Jensen asks, coming to life as he walks further into the room. When she glares at him, he shrugs and tries on a smile. “Not like I’m trying to convince you, I’m just wondering why you hate us so much. We’re just trying to talk to you.”

She rolls her eyes, takes a quick swig of liquor, and watches the party spilling out into the backyard. She’s surprised no one’s started skinny dipping yet; the pool’s big enough. “No one ever just tries anything.”

Jared swings his legs around to hang off the foot of the bed, dangling his feet as he gives her an amused look. “So, you’re not just trying to hide tonight?”

“I wasn’t trying to. I actually _was_. Until you two boneheads came in to bug me.”

“We weren’t trying to bug you,” Jensen says, moving to lean on the desk that’s only a few feet away from Danneel. “We were just looking for someplace to hang out and all the other rooms are … otherwise occupied.”

Danneel rolls her eyes. “Yeah, that kind of thing does happen at parties.” She glances at each of them. “Why were you trying to find a place to hang out? Why aren’t you downstairs with everyone else?”

Jensen makes a face. “Watching my older brother make out with girls from my geometry class is weird.”

She’s laughing before she realizes it and a second later, Jensen is smiling at her. Jared smiles, too, and she doesn’t feel so bothered any more. “I guess you guys can hang out here then.”

Jared looks and sounds hopeful when he asks, “You guess?”

As Danneel had learned her first weekend in this house, her bedroom window easily slides up and lets her out onto the slanted roof that covers the kitchen. She carefully steps onto the rugged roof tiles and waves the guys out with the bottle in her hand.

They join her, Jared close at her side and Jensen right next to him, and they share the bottle as they watch the partygoers below act foolish and trip one another into the pool.

“You ever cannonball from up here?” Jared asks.

“I bet it’d splash all the way out to the grass,” Jensen says, pointing to where the patio ends and the lawn begins nearly ten feet from the edge of the pool.

Jared turns to her, looking all sorts of excited. “Please tell me you’ve done it.”

“No, I haven’t.” It seems like a foolish idea, really. Someone would break a leg or an arm, if they were lucky. Yet the way that Jared and Jensen are sharing pleasant smiles with her makes her think again on the matter. “Not yet,” she adds with a small smile. “Maybe when it’s warmer.”

Jensen passes the vodka bottle right to Danneel. “You’ll let us watch, right?”

Danneel chuckles through a sip, spilling vodka down her chin. She wipes it away and narrows her eyes at them. “What? Like I’m breaking the first bone?” When neither say anything, she elbows Jared. “You’re definitely going first.”

“Sweet!” Jared exclaims. He stands and rips off his shirt, tossing it back into Danneel’s room. She and Jensen yell at Jared to sit back down; she can only imagine that he’ll slip after drinking and end with a splat on the patio. Jensen, on the other hand sounds more annoyed than worried when he tugs on Jared’s shorts to get down. “You guys are no fun,” Jared declares when he finally sits back down with them.

As Jared runs hands through his hair, pushing it back into place from what the shirt had messed up, Danneel watches the lines of his neck and the stretch of lean muscles over his chest. Her eyes widen when Jensen catches her, and she turns away to quickly take a long gulp of vodka. As she coughs it up, Jared rubs her back and Jensen leans forward to take the bottle back.

“Girl can’t keep her cool around the guys,” Jensen lightly teases, and Danneel blushes more at Jensen’s lazy wink than at what he’s just said.

Danneel shakes her head and pushes hair away from her face to calm herself. It’s stupid; she doesn’t like these two, they’re just saving her from a boring night in. She shouldn’t have to worry about what they think of her. “I’m just stuck on the fact that Superman here thinks he can fly.”

“Superman _can_ fly,” Jared corrects.

“No, he can’t. He just jumps really high so it _seems_ like flying.”

“Yeah, what she said,” Jensen nudges Jared hard enough that he bumps into Danneel, and the two guys chuckle.

Danneel bumps back into Jared to jostle Jensen and chuckles with them. “Yeah, what I said.”

Jared grins broadly at her and she decides to take another drink just to ignore the effects his smile has on her. She can feel her skin prickle, but she’ll blame it on the crisp night air, and she’ll later claim that she sat out so late with Jared and Jensen because she had nothing better to do and they just never bothered to leave her alone.

Danneel is nervous to get to school that next Monday and she’s not quite certain why. There are a hundred worries swirling inside, but somehow she had bypassed the potential for a good ol’ fashioned catfight.

“I heard she had both Jensen _and_ Jared in her room all night,” some girl says from only a few lockers away.

When Danneel looks up to find three girls staring at her while they whisper, she knows their end game - to rile her up - and she won’t give them that so she continues to switch books in and out of her book bag while the girls continue goading her.

She’s startled when there’s a clear “Hey, what’s up?” said with a bang on the locker next to her. It’s Jensen and he’s now leaning against the locker door and giving her an easy smile. He’s also blocking the view of the catty girls now behind him. “How was the rest of your weekend?”

“It was okay,” she replies as she shrugs her backpack on. “Yours?”

“Good. Jared and I shot some hoops yesterday then his mama made mac ‘n cheese for dinner. Homemade. It was amazing.”

It’s said so clearly, casually, like Jensen is happy to talk to her for as long as she pleases. And she is quite pleased at how it instantly calms her from the gossip of just a moment ago. “That sounds really delicious.” Then she frowns because it feels lame, but last night Dad was tired from travelling and she wound up making turkey sandwiches for them both.

“They’re just so obvious, my God,” is whispered behind Jensen and he makes a face before moving forward and tugging on Danneel’s hand to follow.

“Don’t even bother listening to them. All that hair dye fries their brain cells.”

Danneel chuckles then stretches her fingers out when she realizes Jensen is still holding her hand as they continue down the hallway.

A day later, Jared pops up next to her at the entrance to the cafeteria with a goofy grin. “I didn’t know you had fifth-period lunch,” he says, as if she’s been hiding that fact from him, as if he should already know this.

She’s not sure what he’s really aiming for, but she does appreciate finally having someone to talk to. Initially, she’d thought that the hours she spent with Jared and Jensen outside her window were a fluke, time passed with free alcohol. Between Jensen tagging along with her throughout Monday, giving random commentary on teachers, students, and even old stories about the school, and this here now, she’s beginning to think she could finally feel settled here.

“I didn’t know you did either,” she replies with a crooked smile.

“I don’t. But I often frequent all lunch hours.” He pats his belly as they approach the food lines. “A growin’ boy’s gotta eat.”

Danneel chuckles and lets him guide her through the line, pointing out which lunch lady always presses her thumb into the hamburger buns and that the cream of celery soup looks more like body fluids. She’s still laughing, even as her stomach begins to turn with the grossness of it all. “You’re not helping,” she complains with a light smack to his gut, which he dopily flinches from. “Now how’m I gonna pick out food?”

“Easy, I’ll do it for you.” He doesn’t leave room for complaints, just packs one tray with two of everything he chooses – kettle-cooked chips, capped tins of mashed potatoes, plastic-wrapped oatmeal cookies, fries, and chocolate and white milk cartons.

Once they’re seated and he’s divvied up the food, she inspects the potatoes then stares at him. “You realize half of these are the same food?”

“Yes, but all with variety.” Jared dips a fry into the mashed potatoes and happily eats it.

“That’s gross,” she says with an odd laugh. She opens the cookies and breaks off small pieces to eat, figuring this is about all that will get her through the day.

“Gross is all the other food.”

“The brisket didn’t look too bad.”

“Miss Betty makes a mean brisket, but Miss Betty also has mean B.O., and I don’t trust that she’s not dripping on the meat.”

Now the cookies taste off, simply from Jared’s imagery. “Now _you’re_ gross!” she cries, throwing pieces of cookie at him.

Jared simply laughs and there’s something open and easy about it that makes her smile anyway. This lunch is the best one she’s had in months.

Danneel enters Dad’s office to let him know dinner’s almost ready, though she stops in the doorway and watches him stare at a framed photo on the desk. She knows which one, had seen it nearly every day of her life on the mantel in their old home. It’s a black-and-white portrait of her mother in bed, pregnant with Danneel.

She can draw the picture in her mind: the soft shadows made by the sheets hanging off her mom’s round belly, the messy waves of bedhead, and the quiet smile to the camera—to Dad. 

It makes Danneel’s chest tight to see Dad staring at it like he’s reliving that very moment. 

She clears her throat, as much to get Dad’s attention as to focus herself. When he looks up, he has a fond smile still in place as he murmurs Mom’s name. Then he blinks, shakes his head, and puts a more flat smile in place. “Hey, honey. Everything okay?”

For most of her life, people have told Danneel she’s a spitting image her mother. Sometimes Gino or even Dad would mistake her if she passed through rooms too quickly. She’d always considered it a beautiful compliment, but now it stings to be called by that name.

She wants to ask him if he’s okay, but knows the response will be a quick _sure_ , and she doesn’t want to acknowledge this anyway. She clears her throat again and tries to smile, but it feels shaky. “Dinner’s in five minutes.”

“What’re we having?”

“Pasta?” 

Dad gives her a knowing look. “And bread?”

“Garlic,” she says, playful. 

“That’s my girl!” Danneel chuckles then he nods and pats the arms of his desk chair before rising and walking to her. With a smile that grows sad the longer he looks at Danneel, he combs hair away from her face and rests his hands on her shoulders. “You’re wonderful, you know that?”

It should make her happy; instead she frowns for how suddenly the moment feels sad. “Dad ...”

He kisses her forehead and goes to the bathroom to wash up. 

Danneel knows she should get back downstairs to finish dinner, but she has to take a second to look at the photo herself. Once she’s full on memories with tears building in her eyes, she shifts the frame back a few inches and brings one of her and Gino in junior high into its place.

At lunch, Danneel bypasses spaghetti, her stomach turning over the quiet and awkward dinner from the night before. There isn’t much left that seems appetizing after Jared opened her eyes to the lunch ladies’ wandering thumbs and hygiene issues, so she sticks to an apple, bag of chips, and bottled water. She also sticks to the corner of the lunch room where there are only a few other students eating at one end of a long table.

She sits on the empty side, crossing her legs up on the bench, and takes small bites from the apple while she reads for her afternoon American Lit class. 

“Are you hiding?”

Danneel’s startled to look up as Jared sits down across from her. “Oh, hey.”

“It seems like you’re hiding. Are you?”

“No, I’m just eating,” she says, motioning with her apple. “And reading.”

After Jared steals a few chips, he taps on her book. “What’re you reading?”

Danneel flaps the book cover for him to see. “Poe. I have an open discussion in seventh period.”

Jared nods, interested. “Cool, you like Poe?”

“Yeah, I guess,” she shrugs. “I mean, I find him interesting. His stuff’s kinda creepy, but pretty good.”

“You like creepy?” he asks, with a laugh. 

“Well, I like you,” she smarts back, intending to joke, yet it feels more real than that. Jared seems happy to hear it, so she rolls her eyes and goes back to reading. “Don’t be so smug. I’m sure lots of people like you.”

“Not really. I don’t know. Maybe. Not many are liked back, though.”

Danneel glances at him and he gives a quick, awkward smile then steals more chips and taps her book. “You know _The Raven_ was originally published in a newspaper.” Danneel nods because that was covered in class just a few days ago. “And did you know he was only paid nine bucks for it?”

She makes an impressed face and skims the text some more. “That’s not too bad for back then.”

“Dude, I can’t eat at McDonald’s for less than ten now.”

“That’s because you’re a monster.” Again, it’s meant to poke fun, but even she hears how terse it was. She catches his gaze for a moment then gets back to the words on the page. “I’m sorry. Maybe I really am hiding.”

“From what?” he asks carefully, still sounding like he actually does care.

Danneel finds herself reaching for the locket around her neck and thumbing at the back of it before she realizes it. Maybe she should stop wearing it. Maybe she should lose it accidentally on purpose.

“Oh, your mom. I’m sorry.”

He sounds more like he thinks he’s intruding than actually sorry for the whole issue. It somehow makes her more comfortable. “How did you know?”

Jared points at the locket. “Jensen told me about the … he said you told him it was hers … and now, I just figured … We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

Danneel shrugs and glances at her book again. She’s sure that she won’t have a problem in class, still seems like she’s giving up if she puts it away. “I don’t know. It’s just weird. Picking up and moving here kind of put it to the back of our minds, but it keeps popping up every so often.”

“What happened? If I can ask, if you don’t mind?”

She realizes she hasn’t talked to anyone about it since it happened. Everything has felt quiet and tense since Mom died, and there is plenty of noise surrounding her and Jared in this lunch room that it’s as though she can say whatever she wants and it’ll get lost in the melee of life happening around them. “She was sick, had been for a while. So, when she finally passed, it felt like a good thing, a weight being lifted or something. She wasn’t herself a lot near the end, just really out of it. I was kind of happy it was finally over.” After a moment, she frowns. “That sounds awful.”

“It makes sense,” Jared says kindly.

Danneel nods because she knows it does. No matter how many times she’s told herself that, she’s carried guilt for a while on that matter. She grows serious when she admits, “And then it sucks to have to pick up and move away from everyone I knew, and I have no one here.”

“What about your brother?”

She gestures to the other side of the cafeteria where Gino sits with half the baseball team and a dozen cheerleaders. 

Jared frowns and nods. “Hmm, I see your point. But the one thing you forgot is you already said you like me. So that means, you have me, and once that happens, there’s no losing me.”

Danneel bites her lower lip to avoid smirking. “That doesn’t sound like good news.”

“It probably isn’t,” he admits, faking the seriousness. “But it’s very, very true.”

“I guess it could be worse.”

“It really could. Plus, there’s Jensen. He always makes me look better.”

She chuckles and shakes her head. “There are definitely worse things than that.”

“On the count of three!” Jensen yells from the water below.

Danneel feels her toes press over the curve of the rock a few stories above him and the wind comes through her hair, whipping it in her face. She pulls it back, twists it, and tugs the length over her opposite shoulder to keep it out of her eyes. Another few deep breaths and she puts one foot back, ready to jump. Or at least she thinks she is, but her body won’t move.

“One, two, three!” Jensen wades in the water and bites his lower lip before smiling. “C’mon! You can do it.”

“Damnit!” she yells back. The wind comes faster this time, chilling the bare skin not covered by her tank top and underwear. She can’t believe they’ve talked her into this.

“Danny Fanny, let’s go!” Jared taunts from behind her. He’s down to boxer briefs and looking incredibly tan and tempting. She’s certain that back in Louisiana, she’d have flirted her way into a wandering walk with him by now, but things are different here. With Jensen and Jared, everything is different, she feels different. Good, but definitely changed.

“I’ll catch you!” Jensen shouts, and she laughs because that is not likely from this height.

“You’re crazy!” She’s re-imagining the nose dive he took off the cliff, a perfect arc of his slim body falling into the water with barely any waves and she’s sure she’ll knock her head on something if she tries it herself. “I can’t do this!”

“We’ll go together,” Jared insists as he nears her. He tucks his large hand around hers, squeezes tight, and takes a few steps back, even when she doesn’t budge from her spot. “On the count of three.”

Danneel gears herself up, but also plans to stand her ground and let his hand slip from hers the second he passes.

“One, two—” and then he’s running forward, clenching her hand tight in his, and pulling them both forward with a great leap off the rock.

Her stomach bottoms out and the air turns frigid with the speed of their fall before she’s suddenly engulfed by ice cold water. Danneel feels herself being pulled down into the water by the gravity of her fall and when she opens her eyes, she sees Jared’s bright smile as he pushes himself back up to the surface. She’s floating for just a few moments, staring at Jared and Jensen’s legs treading water above her, and she swears time slows down to remind her that she just jumped off one of the highest cliffs in the area when for years upon years of her life, a dream about falling off a bridge made her afraid of deep waters.

It’s calm and quiet, the water in her ears muffling everything but her steady heartbeat, and suddenly she smiles and swims to the top. She breaks through the surface of the lake with that same smile in place, though she grimaces when she starts to drop in the water again, not doing a great job of keeping herself afloat.

“Whoa, you okay?” Jensen asks as he wraps his arms around her waist and helps keep her above water.

Danneel sets an arm around his neck and uses the other to push through the water and help keep them both floating. “It’s okay.”

“You sure?”

She easily smiles right at him, loving how his face softens with it, and there are tiny lines around his eyes as he smiles back at her. “Yeah, I’m great.”

“Girl, you are a rock star!” Jared cheers as he paddles closer.

Danneel laughs deliriously because it’s finally hitting her how high up those rocks are that she had been standing on. “Oh my God! I’ve never done that before!”

“You’re a total expert at it now.”

“Seriously, I _hate_ swimming.”

“Well, not any more.” Jared points out that Jensen has moved a little away and is only barely helping her to stay above water.

“Why do you hate swimming?” Jensen asks, holding her forearm as she turns her hand to hold his back and keep steady.

Danneel watches Jared dip back into the water to wet his hair, stroking it back with his hands. She thinks about how it must be to move so easily through water without a care, and then she realizes that Jensen is only barely holding her fingers as she keeps herself up. She smiles at him when he squeezes her fingers and lets go. She figures she should let go a little bit herself.

“I had a dream once, a long time ago, that we had a car accident. The car went over the guardrail of a bridge and just smashed into the water.” She shoves her hand through the water to mimic the movement and waits for them to react.

Neither seems surprised; Jared even just shrugs it off. “Well, that was a long time ago.”

She knows that, feels stupider for hanging onto it for all these years.

Jared shrugs again. “That was then and this is now.”

“And you’re a championship cliff diver now,” Jensen says with a light laugh.

Danneel laughs deliriously, still unable to match up her fears with what she’s just done.

“Wanna go again?” Jared asks as he flicks water at her.

She glances up at the rocks and they seem even higher now, looming up above them and shadowing them in the water.

“We’re going again,” he declares as he tugs her arm so she follows.

At the top of the cliff, Jared kisses her forehead, takes a step back, then grabs her in a hug as he runs them off the edge. They’re both yelling on the way down and her screams become more excited the further they fall until the water drowns out their voices.

“Hi, Dad!” Danneel exclaims when she comes through the kitchen. She kisses the side of his head as she passes him sitting at the table; she’s more focused on grabbing sodas from the fridge and getting back outside where Jared and Jensen are teaching her how to skateboard. “I didn’t know you were home.”

He turns in his seat and smiles oddly. “Got in a little while ago. Where you going with those?”

“Oh,” she mumbles, stopping at the doorway with her arms full of pop cans and two bags of chips. “Uh, outside?”

“How hungry are you?”

Danneel hasn’t told her dad about her new friends, how she now equates them to the Three Amigos who are never out of sight of one another and are constantly running off on their own after school. Now that it’s summer, they’ve got more than enough hours to burn through together. She’s always back for dinner and gets her homework done, and Dad has stopped asking what she does on her own. When she didn’t have much of an answer because she didn’t have anything to do, he stopped bothering her about trying to find something. She kind of figured he was grateful for having one less thing to worry about.

She stumbled upon a friendship with Jared and Jensen and she feels like she doesn’t want anyone to know. They’ve gone cliff driving dozens of times, hung out near Parker’s Point to mock the jocks and cheerleaders who go there to toy with their virginity, and, surprisingly, do a lot of summer reading and prep for fall classes under the shade of willows at Wilson Park.

Jared is a math genius and helps her with algebra while Jensen masters bio; alternatively Danneel’s writing skills have helped Jensen on his composition papers and college admission essays, as well as get and Jared through some lengthy World War II novels. 

Strangely, it’s come together perfectly, and she’s not willing to share that just yet.

“Danneel?” Dad asks when she’s stayed silent too long. “Honey?”

“Danny Fanny! Where you at?” Jared calls just before the front screen door slams shut and he jogs into the kitchen. “Oh, hey,” he mumbles once he spots Danneel’s dad.

She can see her dad is taking in all of Jared from head to toe, then his eyes bug out when he looks at Danneel’s legs, likely spotting the few scrapes she got when she took a couple spectacular falls off Jared’s board.

“It barely hurts,” she says.

“Barely?” Dad asks. “What are you doing out there?”

“We’re skateboarding,” she says like it’s a question, unsure how he’ll respond. Back in Louisiana, she was more about hitting the mall and the movies, less about sports, not to mention playing any.

“Who’s we?”

It’s strange feeling Jared tense beside her; he’s the easy going, hospitable one of the group. “Um, Jared and me and Jensen.” Belatedly she says, “This is Jared. Jared, this is my dad.”

Her dad seems to recover with a short shake of his head. He steps forward for Jared’s hand and shakes with an even smile. “Nice to meet you, Jared.”

“You, too, sir,” Jared says firmly.

“Sir?” Dad says with a gruff laugh. “I know I’m getting a little old, but okay.” After they share a light smile and the room loses some of its awkwardness, he tries to look past Danneel and Jared. “And who’s Jensen?”

The only thing to do is bring Dad outside and introduce him to Jensen as well, but Jensen is busy skidding his board across the curb before taking a bad landing. He’s dumped onto the next lawn and rolls over with a groan. Danneel and Jared run over to check on him with Dad following behind.

When Jensen turns over, he’s laughing and accepting Jared’s hand up to his feet. “That was fuckin’ sick.” Then his eyes go wide at Danneel’s dad standing beside her. “I mean …”

Danneel decides to just get it out of the way and rambles on with, “Jensen, this is my dad. Dad, Jensen. Everyone’s met everyone. Okay, cool.”

It’s only more awkward now and Dad actually has to suggest they get back to whatever they were doing, with a whole “Don’t mind me, pretend you still think I’m not home.”

He settles on the front stoop to watch Jensen jog alongside her as she skates down the sidewalk. Jensen holds her hand firmly and tells her when to strike her foot down on the ground and when to lean left or right to account for the small squiggle the walkway takes in front of each house.

Jensen talks her into turning down a driveway, only to skid back up it, and she sticks the turns with a nervous smile that goes big when Jensen gives her more moral support to keep going. Soon enough, he directs her down her own walk towards the street and lets go just before she hits the curb. She remembers to take a short jump off the board, bends her knees, and lands back on the board as it hits the street then pushes on her back foot to brake and spins around like she’s been doing this for ages.

Joy overtakes her and she’s cheering for herself even when Jared and Jensen are doing an awesome job themselves. Jensen grabs her around the waist and playfully tugs just before Jared runs into them, tackling them all to the ground in a warm, breathless heap.

She’s still laughing when they all roll off of her and it feels so good to feel as bright as the hot, Texas sun. It feels even better when she finds her dad smiling at them all, too.

“I don’t understand what the point is.”

“The point is you stuff your mouth as fast as you can,” Danneel says with a twist in her voice to joke.

“Yeah, you’re used to that,” Jensen adds.

Jared pushes a couple gummi bears together and makes a face at them. “Why can’t we just eat ‘em?”

Danneel’s laughing even before she smarts, “Because you don’t look funny enough.”

Jensen rolls his eyes when Jared still seems doubtful. “How chicken shit are you?”

Together, Danneel and Jensen begin cawing at Jared, laughing at how awful each is, but continuing on until Jared has to give in to laugh. He pounds his fist on the table to stop them. “Alright, whatever, you babies. Let’s play your stupid game. You just better hope I don’t choke to death.”

“On gummi bears?” she asks, doubtful.

“When he was ten, he choked on a hot dog,” Jensen explains.

“Oh, there are too many jokes at once.”

“I know, right?”

Jared huffs. “Enough picking on Jared. Let’s go.”

Danneel starts the countdown and once she yells _go!_ they hurry to stuff as many multi-colored gummi candies in their mouth as they can. Their cheeks puff out the more they add and suddenly, Danneel’s jaws are stretched wide and she’s breathing heavily through her mouth to remain calm and push a few more in.

Jared finally gets clue to the goofiness of the game and points at Jensen’s fat cheeks, laughing then coughing half his gummies out onto Jensen’s kitchen table. Jensen and Danneel laugh at Jared’s break, but both manage to keep it together and sit for another ten minutes with full cheeks as they mime a whole new conversation.

She could keep going on like this, but Jensen’s mom comes home from work and starts up dinner. Danneel and Jensen carefully spit the candies into paper towels and wash down the table to clean up after themselves. She scrubs extra hard where Jared had spat up all of his gummies on the surface, shooting him a dirty glare that he returns with a smirk.

Jensen’s mom invites Danneel to stay, but it’s nearing time for Danneel’s dad to be back from work, too.

“You know you’re always welcome to, sweetie,” Jensen’s mom insists. Danneel still feels weird calling her by her first name, even in her head. “You know that, right?”

Danneel nods with a quick, “I know, and thanks.” She grabs her backpack off the back of her chair and leaves with a quick wave behind her.

Back at home, though, Gino has left a note that he’s gone to the batting cages with friends and Dad’s already got a plate of leftovers in his lap as he watches the evening news in the family room.

“Hey, honey,” he says with a guilty smile. “I thought you’d be staying at Jensen’s for dinner.”

She finds it odd that he knew they were there, but then again, it’s Wednesday. They always go to Jensen’s on Wednesdays and Fridays when Josh has work and Mackenzie is at dance class, leaving them all alone. Danneel secretly thinks it’s because Mrs. Ackles always grocery shops Tuesday nights and Jared wants new snacks.

“I have a lot of homework,” she excuses away as she sits down next to him on the couch and leans against his side, her head on his shoulder.

He kisses her head and leans back into her, and she suddenly realizes that for all the time she’s been spending with Jensen and Jared, she’s missed her family. Honestly, she misses the family she had back in Louisiana, when Mom would make rice and beans and cornbread, and they’d all sit around the table far past eating time to share their days. It makes her sad, almost empty, to no long have those shared moments.

Danneel had been trying so long to not worry over what she was missing and just numbly move forward. She wonders if that’s why she loves being with Jared and Jensen. It’s like a new family to sit with, and now she dearly wishes she’d stayed at Jensen’s.

“Did you have fun over there?”

“Yeah, I did.” After a few moments, she smiles as she remembers their game. “I played the gummi thing with them.”

He chuckles and nudges her side. “Oh, yeah? And who won?”

“I say I did, but Jensen would argue me on that one.”

Around a bite of food, he says, “You know your mom taught me that on our third date.”

Danneel glances at him then right to the TV when she sees he hasn’t stopped staring at it. She never knew that, but it feels weird to acknowledge after she’s just finally starting to feel okay not trying to remember too much of back then and live in today.

“I’m glad you have them,” Dad says.

She hums and looks at him.

“Jared and Jensen. They’re good boys. And I’m glad to see you smiling again.”

She’s not even trying to be cheeky, but she smiles in return, unable to not when she thinks about the guys. She gets the urge to be with them and gets off the couch. “I think I’m gonna go back to Jensen’s.”

“Oh, really?” he asks when she reaches the door, and she knows that tone.

Danneel rolls her eyes with a huff. “Dad, nothing’s going on with Jensen.”

“Jared, then?”

“No,” she insists, but something settles in her chest that makes her think twice over both statements. She tells herself they’re like big brothers—seeing as hers is never around anymore—but she can’t deny that she has feelings for either of them. Both, even.

“If you say so,” he replies, going back to his dinner.

“I’ll be back by nine.”

Mrs. Ackles answers the door with a quick flash of surprise before she fully opens the door with a bright, open smile. There’s only a quick moment of being asked if something was forgotten before Danneel’s ushered into the kitchen and given a fresh plate with a pork chop, homestyle potatoes, and applesauce.

It’s the best meal she’s had in weeks.

She also gets her fill of laughter as Jensen’s family talks about their day as if they’re telling stories on TV—peppering every few sentences with random, witty asides and terribly descriptive commentary on the people involved in each incident.

Warm, happy, and full on dessert, Danneel goes with Jensen up to his room to hang out. She’s seen the room a hundred times by now, but it feels weird when the rest of the house is noisy with TVs, gaming systems, and random conversation in other rooms.

“Have you thought about Halloween?” Jensen asks.

Danneel joins him at his desk where he’s shuffling books around as though he’s about to start homework. “No, I haven’t. You?”

Jensen puts on a pair of thick-rimmed glasses and smiles at her. The glass warps the color of his eyes, making them even more vibrant and she can’t stop staring. “Clark Kent!” he announces. “I’ve got one of Josh’s old suits that fits perfectly.”

She laughs and tugs on his shirt. “But how will people not just think you’re boring ol’ Jensen?”

He frowns at her mocking then nudges her shoulder. “’Cause Jared’s gonna be my Superman, standing right beside me.”

“ _Your_ Superman? Really?” She can hear how it sounds more strained than joking, and she can’t stop the odd feeling overcoming her. She’s not sure if it’s jealousy, like she’s being left out of the plan, or just that she feels so wrong for thinking they weren’t together, that their triad wouldn’t be broken off into a couple and one odd man out.

“You could be our Lois Lane.” A moment later, Jensen’s putting the glasses onto Danneel’s face then swipes at her hair, making some sweep across her forehead and holding a ponytail in the back. “Yeah, you could pull it off.”

He lets her hair down, but he’s still standing incredibly close. Her heart kicks up at the limited space between them, moreso on how pretty Jensen looks as he calmly watches her back. It’s a little hard to breath, even hard to sound calm when she asks, “You want me to be your Lois Lane?”

“Whatever you wanna be … you can be it.” His voice also sounds a bit strained, especially when he adds, “You look really nice with glasses on.”

It’s quiet and still in his room and she’s certain if she leaned just one inch forward that he would kiss her, but she’s filled with a jolt of betrayal. Just a minute ago she thought Jared and Jensen were leaving her behind; she can’t do that to Jared.

“I really like Jared,” she blurts out.

“Oh, okay,” Jensen mumbles as he takes a step back.

“I really like you, too.”

“Oh, _okay_ ,” he repeats, yet differently, as if he can’t piece that together.

Back in Louisiana, she probably wouldn’t look twice at Jared or Jensen. She had a boyfriend after all, one she’d been hesitant to leave behind, one she’d thought about having a long-distance relationship with. Yet, right now she can’t bear to part with either Jared or Jensen. It’s frightening to consider, especially when Jensen seems a cross between heartbroken by her first confession and torn by the second. She can’t stand to see him look like this, so she moves forward and presses her mouth to his, wraps her arms around his neck and hugs him for dear life when she breaks off the kiss.

He chuckles and heaves a long breath as he stumbles to find his footing while still holding her.

Danneel relishes the way his palms rest on her back, warm and easy as they begin to stroke up and down her spine. She tucks her head against his shoulder, just enjoying the hug.

“I don’t know what this means,” he murmurs.

“Me neither.” And she means it; she’s not sure that this has made things better or worse.

“Well, I have an American History paper that can’t be written from this position.”

He sounds awkward, but she laughs broadly as she lets him go. She loves how subdued his jokes can be, or how funny he is when he isn’t even trying. It’s a great reverse to Jared who’s always trying to make someone laugh.

Danneel twists her fingers together, only barely glances at him when she asks, “Do you need someone to proof it?”

He nods and smiles, and it seems like nothing has changed between them at all. “I would _love_ for someone to proof it.”

“You’re not hanging out with your lovers today?” Gino asks when he drops into the other end of the couch. He turns on the TV, volume going loud and disturbing the reading Danneel was doing in the formerly peaceful and empty living room. She kicks his side for that, and maybe also his question. “What? You’re stuck like glue to those two punks.”

Danneel kicks him again, making him yelp and slap her foot. “They’re not punks. _Your_ friends are punks.”

“My friends are fine.”

“Yeah? Then why aren’t you with them right now?”

“ _Yeah?_ ,” he mocks. Gino changes channels then finds a college basketball game; she thinks this is even worse than watching golf. “I’m chilling out until tonight’s party.”

“Sounds exciting,” she says flatly.

“And what’re you doing tonight? Triple date at Parker’s Point?”

Danneel rolls her eyes and pulls her legs in closer, as if the further she is from him, the less he’ll pester her. “No, we don’t go there.”

“I saw you up there last week with those two bozos.”

They were there, kind of. They’d been cliff diving again, but had to pass by the bluff from where they’d parked and spent most of the moonlight hours in the lake, just floating around and talking. “And what were _you_ doing there?”

Gino snorts and it sounds dirtier than anything else he could have said. 

She fakes gagging. 

“Jealous?”

“No.”

They both fall silent, Gino watching the game and Danneel trying to get back to her homework. It doesn’t last very long because she keeps looking up at him to wonder when he became such a shithead to taunt her like this. Back in Louisiana, they got along better than anything, were always hanging together, and she’d drag him along to parties and weekend outings with her friends. 

Suddenly, he asks, “Is there anything going on with them?”

“Jared and Jensen?”

“No, Bert and Ernie. Yeah, them two.”

“They’re not together,” she replies, staring at the same line in her book, over and over. 

“I mean with you.”

Glancing up, she finds Gino staring right at her. “No. Why would you think that?”

He shrugs and focuses back on the TV. “Some people at school say stuff.”

“Some people at school are jagoffs.”

“Just … be careful, okay?”

She shakes her head and tries to ignore how much the conversation has unsettled her.

Monday at school, Danneel tucks a new picture up in her locker. There aren’t many, but the few there are from times spent with Jared and Jensen. Cell phone and home printer quality, sure, but they’re great captures of the goofball times between them all, including Jared and Danneel sunbathing on the top of their cliff, and now Jensen and Danneel’s chipmunk cheeks.

“Oh, isn’t that cute?” one of the blonde cheerleaders from last year’s algebra—Kari, maybe—says as she points at the picture. She clearly doesn’t mean it from her tone, but she’s standing right next to Danneel and scoping out the pictures tacked up. “Are you guys going to the holiday dance together?”

“What?” Danneel asks, confused as to why Kari is still talking to her. “Who?”

“You and Jensen?”

“Or is it you and Jared?” another girl asks, the brunette friend with the insanely long fingernails that are always painted in bright neons. “Or Jared and Jensen? I’m never really sure.”

“Maybe it’s all three,” Jensen says with a light smile when he nudges his way between the girls and Danneel.

After what happened last night, something hits low in her belly that it could be true. She’s not sure why it bothers her, but it does. “Jensen, stop,” she mumbles once she’s closed her locker and is dragging him away from the girls.

“I’m just trying to help.”

“Well, I don’t need it,” she shoots back, walking quickly.

Jensen nearly jogs to catch up and shoots her a look. “Those girls are idiots anyway.”

“I don’t need you fighting for me.”

“I’m not saying you do.”

“Then why are you doing it?” she complains, spinning to face him even as other students bump them in passing.

“I just … I don’t know, I …” Jensen sighs and rubs a hand over his jaw. “I guess I really like you, too. I have for a while, so yeah, maybe I feel a little protective of you.”

She feels a jolt at his admission, followed by grief over what’s to come of their three-way friendship. “What about Jared?”

Jensen glances away. “He really likes you, too. He asked you out first after all.”

“That was for real?” she asks with a small, tight laugh, remembering how rude she was to them way back when. “I thought you guys were screwing around.”

“What did you think the last six months have beem?”

Danneel shrugs and turns back into the flow of students trying to leave for the day. “I don’t know, a freak accident?”

“Speaking of freak accidents,” Jared says from her other side. He sets his arm over her shoulders and winks. “Kari Hoffman’s got a huge log up her ass about something.”

Jensen looks over his shoulder. “Because she thinks we’re all going to the dance together.”

“Sweet, can’t wait,” he replies, easy as that.

And Danneel finds out, oddly enough, that it really is.

They don’t make a big appearance at the dance. They stick around long enough to get some food, see who wore what, dance through a few songs, then high-tail it with Gino when he lets them tag along to a house party.

It’s a small house with a large yard, the short-stop’s house, a guy Danneel doesn’t really know, but recognizes from hanging around her house for Gino.

“Hey, little sister,” the guy says with a low whistle and raised eyebrow when Danneel walks by him to grab a few beers.

“Real cute,” she grumbles, rolling her eyes.

“Yeah, you are.” He runs his hand over her back, the ruffle of her skirt over her ass, and just barely touches her bare leg when he yelps. “What the hell, dude!”

“I don’t think she’s yours,” Jared says between clenched teeth. In one smooth move, he gets the short-stop’s right arm—his throwing arm—tucked tight against his own back. “You want someone touching your little sister?”

“Of course not, man.”

Jared pushes the guy’s arm a little higher. “Then don’t touch her.”

“What are you? Her bodyguard?”

Jared lets him go but then shoves him back into the counter as one last warning. “Just leave her alone.”

“Dude, why are you so pissed? I thought Ackles was nailing her.”

In a flash, Jared’s nailed the guy in the nose, knocking him to the ground. Danneel thinks long enough to grab a bottle of vodka off the nearby table then shove Jared out of to the back door. They get to running, panting so hard they don’t even say anything, worried that the short-stop or other friends will coming running after them.

Another minute and they’re a block away and jogging towards Wilson Park off in the distance. Both their phones go off, for different reasons. Gino’s looking for Danneel and Jensen’s tracking down Jared.

She replies to Gino’s text to say she’s fine and left with Jared, while Jared huffs at his phone.

“What?” she asks, dropping down to sit at their spot under the willows.

“Is he really?” he asks, angry but not looking at her.

“Is who really what?”

“Jensen! Is he really nail—”

Danneel’s outraged that he was ready to be so crude. “Really _nailing_ me?”

He doesn’t concede that question and she doesn’t bother answering. She opens the bottle of vodka and takes a healthy drink, coughing and spitting only a little bit up when it’s too dry and warm.

Jared chuckles and reaches for the bottle. “Smart girl. Grab the goods on the way out.”

She snorts and glances around them, wanting to see anything but his face because she’s not sure what to say to him after he tried to so harshly accuse her of sleeping with Jensen.

“I know he really likes you. Jensen, that is.” Danneel finally looks at him, somehow likes hearing that, but also wonders what Jared really feels for her. “Like _really_ likes you.”

Without a word, she takes the bottle back and drinks. She waits until he’s got the liquor back and is drinking to say, “I really like him, too. But no, he’s not … we’re not, whatever.”

“It’s only a matter of time, huh?” He’s oddly quiet about it, and just like she knew would happen, guilt overcomes her for the possibility of him feeling left out.

“Jensen said you like me, too.”

Jared looks nervous and Danneel definitely feels it, unsure of how to traverse this conversation. “When did he tell you that?”

She shrugs and plays with her fingers. “A few months ago.”

“Is that why you guys haven’t … whatever?”

Danneel shakes her head and only barely meets his gaze. “I don’t wanna choose.”

Slowly, a smile grows on his face and it’s catching, making Danneel share it.

“Dude,” Jensen calls out, jogging towards them. “Where have you been?”

“Right here,” Jared replies, irritated.

“Shit, Jacob’s is gonna kick your ass so hard.”

“Really? Why?” Jared asks, grinning and proud.

“Because you broke his fucking nose, that’s why, you asswipe.”

“Yeah, ‘cause he was mauling Danny.”

Jensen stutters the last few steps then drops down next to Danneel, leaning back with one arm close behind her. He seems offended on Danneel’s behalf. “She doesn’t need you to protect her.”

“I know, but I like to.” Jared winks at her. He makes one of his goofy little faces and it feels like they didn’t have any moment of revelation between them; it’s as though the three of them are still just them. No changes whatsoever.

“Jared’s like King Kong,” Danneel says, turning towards Jensen and punching thin air. “Me, smash! Me, break!”

They break into laughter and pass the bottle around to kill the rest of the evening, just talking and hypothesizing what stories will float around on Monday about Jared’s busted hand or Jacob’s busted face.

It’s better than any after-party that Danneel’s ever been to.

Hours later, at her front door, Jared sways under the weight of the vodka. Maybe also because they’re tired of walking. It’s not like Danneel lives close to the park, but they thought it was wise to walk off the alcohol.

“Let’s go sit up on your roof,” he whispers with a lazy smile. “And look at the stars and stuff.”

Danneel smiles and appreciates that he’s being quiet, especially this late at night when she’s certain they could wake up her dad. “I always love doing stuff.”

“Stuff is cool,” Jensen says with a sure nod, likely mocking Jared.

Either way, Danneel doesn’t want to say goodnight just yet, so she lets them in and they tiptoe up the stairs, down the hall, and into her room. She quietly closes the door and takes off her shoes, barely paying attention to what the guys are doing. She doesn’t open the window any wider than the few inches that gives her a cool breeze at night, then flops back on her bed, smiling when Jared and Jensen each get in next to her.

From the corner of her eye, she can see Jared blinking at the ceiling and smiling. He hums and shuffles on the bed to a more comfortable position, slipping his arm beneath Danneel’s neck. “I love the stars.”

She softly laughs. “Me, too, sweetie.”

“Stars are good,” Jensen mumbles. Then he rolls towards her and sets his arm over her waist, his face just barely pressed against her bare shoulder. She can feel his breath coasting over her skin, and it’s warm, but a chill run down her arm. “You okay?”

With only a passing thought, she brings her arm up to rest on Jensen’s and turns her head to face him. He’s looking up at her from under the long fan of his eyelashes, and she thinks once again about kissing him. Has thought about it almost every day since she did. Then Jared begins to roll towards her and settles against her back with an arm over her as well.

Danneel’s trapped between them, and she’s not sure which of them will sleep first. She imagines she’ll be stuck here until morning, that is if she can maintain breathing with Jared’s heavy arm draped across her chest.

She begins to chuckle and Jensen smiles brighter at her, then she goes quiet when he leans up and forward with the most serious face she’s ever seen him have. He hovers just beside her with their mouths inches apart, and she can’t dare move in this position, neither into the kiss or from it, too afraid to move in any direction. If she goes for it, it could kill Jared; if she stops Jensen, she knows she’ll hurt him just the same.

Jensen finally closes the space with a soft kiss, and Danneel decides to hold still. If she doesn’t react, maybe no one will be wounded. He opens his mouth against hers, plies her lips just a fraction of the way open, and when she feels his palm on her cheek, she melts into it just to feel something more than this teetering between them all.

His tongue presses inside and strokes along hers, and she opens her mouth wider to give him more space. Belatedly, she realizes Jared’s arm has tightened around her and he’s kissing up the side of her neck. Heat flushes through her and she feels sluggish in the kiss, in moving her hand up for Jensen or back to Jared. It feels like they’re all too close yet too far away. She can’t decide what she wants: to stop it all now, or keep going and make a bad situation even worse.

Danneel pulls back to catch her breath and let her mind settle, but when she looks back at Jared, sees his eyes dark and wide, lips shining in the moonlight, she can’t ignore the want whirling inside. He smiles just a tiny bit, betraying how lost and unsure he had seemed for the long moment they’d stared at one another. Then he slides forward, brushes his lips against hers, pushes his tongue inside to replace the flavor of Jensen with something strong and salty. Something more Jared.

Somewhere beyond their staggered breathing and Danneel’s racing heartbeat, she hears a creak out beyond her closed bedroom door. She flinches, as do Jared and Jensen when she makes a worrisome noise, and waits as she hears her dad moving in the hallway to and from the bathroom.

When she finally hears his bedroom door close, she releases a sigh, dumps her head back to her pillow, and closes her eyes tightly, trying to calm her jumpy heart.

“I think he’s going back to bed,” Jared whispers.

“Yeah,” she replies.

“Maybe we should sleep.”

A few seconds later, Jensen lightly clears his throat. “Maybe we should just go.”

Jared begins to pull away and Danneel flips her eyes open, looking at them both. She’s not sure what she wants, but she’s certain it’s not that. “No, don’t, just stay for the night.” When neither answers, she bites her bottom lip then takes a deep breath. “We’ll talk about it in the morning. Just, for now, we sleep.”

They all settle back down as comfortably as they can without lying so closely upon one another. Sleep comes, but the talking doesn’t. When Danneel wakes in the morning, she’s alone.

Neither Jared nor Jensen show up on Sunday, but Danneel doesn’t go looking for them either. Same for Monday at school, Tuesday, too. She doesn’t have classes near any of them, doesn’t share a scheduled lunch, and she realizes all the times that Jensen and Jared just popped up to see her and how little she ever tried to track them down.

She’s not sure what period either of them eat, doesn’t know what ways they would walk between classes without detouring to her, and all she knows about their lockers is what halls they’re in—not even which number they are.

On Wednesday, after dropping books off at home and changing four times until she feels comfortable yet cute without looking like she’s trying, Danneel finally shows up to Jensen’s. She stands on the front steps and prepares to ring the doorbell, but she never did before. Not for the nine to ten months they’ve been hanging out regularly, and certainly not when she knows that only Jensen will be home.

From the foyer, she can hear muffled noises upstairs, likely in Jensen’s bedroom. She swallows hard and builds up the courage to take the stairs. It’s a frightful thing to come after them, but she knows she has to try. She’s not willing to give either of them up, and they’ve both pulled enough weight for all three of them in kickstarting this friendship.

Jensen’s door is closed and she hears a laugh inside, Jared’s, and she smiles at the sound of it. Just four days since she’s heard it and she realizes she’s missed it terribly. There’s a dark noise, a growl of some sort, and Danneel leans against the door to hear better, making a board creak beneath her feet.

“Dude, is someone home?” Jared asks in a hush and Danneel feels foolish sneaking like this.

She finally knocks and opens the door with a nervous, “It’s Danny.”

Jensen’s _oh shit_ is just barely heard above the noise of them shuffling and Jensen’s bed squawking with movement.

Before the door is fully opened, she says, “I can come back later.” Then she stalls in the doorway when she finds Jared and Jensen each shirtless with Jared trying to pull his jeans up over dark underwear. “Or not at all.”

“It’s not what you think,” Jensen says immediately.

“Oh, really?” Danneel can’t breathe, words coming out tight and uneven. “Because it looks like you two were messing around.” Jared looks guilty and Jensen opens his mouth to speak, but doesn’t manage to say anything. Her head spins with fury and she clenches her hands in fists tight enough that she feels the prick of every fingernail in her palm. “And you guys were each trying to play me while you were together? Like I was just some added bonus?” She can’t stop the words now, nor the tears that start. “And when I wouldn’t put out, you both just ditched me. Ditched our friendship.”

“No, that wasn’t it,” Jensen defends.

“It really wasn’t,” Jared adds with a shake of his head. He gets up from the bed and comes near her, but Danneel backs up into the hallway.

A small part of her is fighting to not believe them, to reclaim that lonely seat she’d had for the first few months after moving here. Back then, it was easy to stay inside herself, to keep her feelings to herself and not worry about having them broken and crying. God, she hates crying, and right now she hates herself for even getting worked up over all this.

“I should’ve just ignored you guys the whole time,” she mumbles.

Jared’s hands reach for her face, tip it so she can see into his eyes that are clear and deep, but desperately sad. “We weren’t doing any of those things. Yeah, I was hurt from Saturday, but it wasn’t because you turned us down. I was afraid we’d scared you off.”

She’s scared, for sure, of what’s to happen to their friendship if she can fully believe them. She slides back and lets Jared’s hands drop between them, takes a deep breath, and looks at Jensen. He seems just as worried and broken as Jared does. “How do I know you’re not lying again?”

“We never lied before,” Jensen murmurs. “We love you.”

Danneel wants to laugh bitterly, ask what they know about love, but she knows she’s been in love with them both for months even if she’s only been aware of it for weeks. Tears build again and she’s desperate to hang onto each of them, even when she can’t get her voice to work or her arms to move.

Jensen pulls her into his arms and hugs tightly, kisses her neck, then holds even tighter. “We missed you, you know that, right?” he whispers in her ear.

She clings to him and ducks her face against his neck. “I missed you, too.”

Jared must’ve heard her because he comes forward to hug around them both and kisses the top of her head. They stand like that for countless minutes, swaying together, feeling the warm embrace, until someone clambers through the front door and all three flinch away from one another.

Jared runs back into Jensen’s bedroom for his shirt while Jensen peeks over the railing. Danneel sees Josh stand in the hallway below and laugh at them.

“Hey, Cassanova!” Josh yells, gesturing at Jensen still without his shirt. “What’re you two doing up there alone?”

“Shut up, Josh.”

“Mom know you got your girlfriend here alone?”

“You’re supposed to be working,” Jensen shoots back.

“I got off early. But tell Mom I’m running back out to the book store for school.”

Jensen rolls his eyes and waves his hand as an okay, then leads Danneel into his room. “It’s fine,” he tells Jared, who’s crazy nervous, sitting on the bed with his knee jumping up and down. It kind of makes Danneel laugh as she sits down near him. “Assface is only here for a minute.”

“I heard that,” Josh yells, from downstairs, but then the door opens and slams closed again, and they’re left alone.

“So, Cassanova,” Danneel says to Jensen, “What were you two doing up here?”

“Just, trying to …” Jensen drifts off.

Jared finishes with, “relieve some stress.”

Danneel stares at them each then breaks out laughing, confusing them both. “Is that what you’re calling it?”

“What?” Jared shrieks. “We’re both very stressed. You’re a very stressful girlfriend, you know!”

“No, I don’t … I don’t know,” Danneel mumbles back, looking between them again. She wonders if this is how Jared and Jensen have seen her, if it’s what they’ve really been for all this time and she never recognized it. Maybe they were all moving together toward something none of them could name, and all along, no one had to choose anyone.

Jared leans forward and taps her nose. “Well, you are.”

Danneel rubs over the edge of her nose and frowns a little. “Well, you’re not very easy boyfriends, either.” After a moment, she adds, “If that’s what you are?”

Jensen glances at Jared, Danneel, and again to Jared, like he’s unsure how to response. “I kind of—”

“Really have been dying to be,” Jared says. When Jensen glares at him, Jared shrugs. “Well, you have.” He turns to Danneel. “Me, too, for the record.”

Delirious is the only way to describe the room. Giddy, ridiculous, terrifying delirium must have taken over each of them. “I don’t even know how this would work.”

“You think we’re the experts or something?”

She chuckles and more tension eases within. Maybe nothing changes in their friendship, but all the in-between moments will no longer waver to each end of the spectrum. Danneel will finally have a clear view of what’s right in front of her.

“Jensen?” Danneel asks, looking up at him. He’s standing plainly in front of her, bare chest pushing in and out with as if he’s having trouble breathing. To anyone else in the world, he’d likely seem fine, but she can see the worry etched into his the lines around his eyes. “What about you?”

“Me?” he asks, breathless and barely smiling. “I love you. That’s what about me.”

She stares up at him, watches his chest rise with a long, kept breath, and then she jumps forward to hug him hard. She holds on tight, not wanting to let go, because the prospect that they’re both here, that they both love her, is more than she can stand and she can’t bear to end this moment.

Except Jared then clears his throat and rises from the bed; she worries he thinks it’s only about Jensen, but it never was. Danneel lets go of Jensen only to latch onto Jared so hard that they wobble then fall to the bed when he loses his balance. She laughs and looks down at his face, pink with surprise.

Just a second later, Jensen jumps onto the bed and flings himself over Danneel. Jared laughs and groans under the weight of them both, until Danneel shuffles to the side and relaxes with them both.

The next morning, Jared walks Danneel to Chemistry third period and Jensen meets her after sixth-period Gym on the way to American Lit. She is certain on the outside it would appear nothing has changed, but there is something more in the air between them all. She’s more aware of the heat of them when they stand just a few inches closer, when Jensen’s fingers dangle down near her hand to lightly touch, or when Jared hugs her a little tighter as they walk down the hall.

She’s excited to get to her locker at the end of the day, to see them both and start the afternoon together, but only Jared shows up.

Danneel glances around and tries not to appear disappointed. “Where’s Jensen?”

“Josh is picking him up. They’ve got some family dinner at his grandma’s.”

“Oh, okay,” she says as lightly as possible. “So, just you and me, huh?”

“Don’t look so excited.” Jared winks then takes her backpack to hold it open so she can take books out and put others in for homework. “What do you have on your plate today?”

Danneel shrugs as she pulls her backpack on. “I don’t know. Maybe an afternoon walk with a cute guy?”

Jared puts his elbow out for her wrap her hand around and leads her down the hallway. “I’m definitely your man for that.”

She’s a bit delirious to walk home from school with Jared, but they behave like it’s any other day. He walks along the curb like it’s the balance beam while holding her hand out between them and she shuffles beside him in the street, all while they talk about classes and teachers and the mounds of homework they want to avoid.

He leads her to his house, and around to the backyard, pitching his backpack down at the roots of a large, overgrown tree. Without a word, he guides her to take her backpack off as well then holds his hands out, laced together, to pitch her up by her foot so she can grab one of the low branches.

Danneel sets her foot in his hold and her hands at his shoulders, bouncing her leg with his hands. Before they can really get going, she bites her lower lip and looks up at the tree. “You sure about this?”

“As sure as the sky is blue.”

Back to Jared, she finds a soft look on his face and then feels a distinct swirl in her stomach, filling her with her nerves. She blames it on the height, a bit afraid to start climbing up high no matter how many times they dive off their cliff. It’s a new feeling to climb up than to free fall down.

“You’ll be fine,” he assures. “Just a few feet up and I’ll be right behind you.”

She holds her breath and briefly closes her eyes before pushing hard off Jared’s feet and jumping up to grab the nearest branch. She climbs up the trunk of the tree and eventually pulls herself up to stand while holding the branch above. Seconds later, Jared is following and nudges her to climb to the level up, supporting her feet and back as she climbs up.

Before long, they’re nearly halfway up the tree and shadowed by a dozen other branches and hundreds of leaves. Danneel sits down with her back against the trunk and legs dangling below. She does her best to not look down, but her eyes stray as she watches Jared lower himself to sit in front of her.

Jared shuffles even closer, knocking their knees together and slipping his hands against hers. “See, you’re good now,” he murmurs.

“I know,” she insists, even while she knows there’s a slight tremor to her fingers as she tries to calm down.

“Why’re you so nervous?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is it because you’re afraid of getting down?”

Danneel doesn’t want to, but her eyes once again betray her by stealing a peek below before she squeezes her eyes tightly. Behind eyelids, she can see how high they are and the longer she tries to convince herself it isn’t so bad, her imagination stretches and she feels as though she’s even higher up in the tree.

“That didn’t help, eh?” Jared asks with a weak laugh.

“Not at all,” she replies, reaching out to smack him and feeling jostled from her spot on the branch. She clamps her hand down on his forearm when she hits it and holds tightly, until she can steady herself. Even then, she continues to hold his arm and keeps her eyes closed.

“You’re fine.”

“No, I’m not,” she grumbles.

“It’s okay, Danny,” he whispers. “You’ll be okay.”

She opens her mouth to argue and bumps into Jared’s face. She flinches back but then he brings a hand up to her neck to keep her in place and kisses her, careful at first then with more pressure when she makes a soft noise. Jared tips his head and she tilts the other way to open her mouth wide to his and in seconds, her head is swimming for an entirely different reason. She’s shocked back to last weekend in her bed with the fresh scent of air flowing through her windows now surrounding her entirely in the tree. The taste of Jared bursts on her tongue and she quickly circles her tongue around his to chase the flavor and keep it locked in her brain.

Danneel leans forward, as well forward as she can without disrupting herself or him, and deepens the kiss the longer they go on. Jared rests his other hand at her waist, holding her as close as he can, which isn’t much, and she still holds on tight to his arms. She digs her fingernails into his skin as she relishes the continuous swirl of his tongue through her mouth and the steady glide of his lips over hers.

She realizes she hasn’t kissed anyone else since her last night in Louisiana; Justin had snuck into her bedroom to say goodbye in private and they’d made good use of the night hours to coast around the bases, but he hadn’t taken his time like Jared seems to now. Back in her bedroom, Justin had been all fearful impatience, not wanting to say goodbye yet wanting to get to that point as quickly as possible.

Jared, however, is taking his time and exploring her mouth, rubbing his thumb along her ear, and carefully swinging his feet behind hers to keep constant contact. It’s wonderful and terrible all at once because she grows dizzy with excitement and want, and when she shifts, she’s reminded of what little balance she has and that they’re _in a tree_ , so she pulls back quickly and sucks in a long, noisy breath.

Belatedly, Jared opens his eyes and catches her reaction. He shifts back and lets go of her immediately, looking hurt and guilty. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for that … to get carried away … I should have asked you—”

“Stop,” Danneel orders harshly then giggles and leans forward to kiss him briefly. “Don’t you dare apologize for kissing the daylights outta me.”

Jared tips his forehead to hers, gaze sliding down to her mouth, and smiles as he puts his hands back on her hips. “So, you’re not offended?”

She rubs her nose along his and bites the corner of her lip. “I’m only offended you’re doing it up here, when that’s all we can do.”

His eyes widen then he smirks and kisses down her cheek. “Then I am thoroughly sorry for that, you have no idea.”

Danneel leans into another kiss that’s just as thrilling as the last one, yet only lasts half the time. She pulls back, runs her hands down the front of his shirt, and grabs at the cotton as she leans back against the tree trunk. Glancing around, Danneel smiles because the view makes her think they’re cocooned in a forest, and she thoroughly appreciates Jared’s foresight on that.

“Maybe I’m not _so_ offended we’re up here,” she says with a leading tone. “It is pretty cool.”

Jared runs his hands up her arms, over her shoulders, and down her sides. “I’m glad the lady approves.”

“It’s pretty cool to be alone and all that.”

“It is,” he agrees with a nod.

When his fingers curl into the fabric of her thermal top, she makes a split-second decision yanks the shirt up and off, leaving it draped in her lap. She’s left in just a bra and quite chilly for January. Jared is appropriately shocked, and she wants to joke that there wasn’t much left to imagine when her thermal was fitted, but she’s more interested in the way his fingertips lightly coast over her bare shoulders and down her collarbone until he drags one finger down a bra strap.

Jared brings his hand back up to her face, palm warm against her cheek, and he stares at her. “You are beautiful.”

Danneel flushes and thinks of covering herself up again; his eyes are searching hers, he’s not even looking at her chest like she wanted him to.

“I mean it,” he insists then brings his hands up like they’re shielding her chest. “From the neck up, you’re absolutely gorgeous.”

She laughs when he starts to smile. “Only the neck up?”

“Well, I mean, if you’re _forcing_ me to look, then I will. I’m a man of honor, ya know?”

“Since when?”

“Since a nice, young, innocent young lady disrobed.”

With another laugh, Danneel swats his arms down then brings his hands to her waist. She feels a shock of warmth when his fingers curl around the curve of her ribcage and as they travel up until they’re touching the sides of her bra. She sees his Adam’s apple bob when he gulps and she wants to laugh once more, but instead can only nod to his earnest, hopeful look.

Jared’s hands shift up to cup her breasts, large hands taking the weight of them, and he gently squeezes while looking between them and her face.

She nods again to keep him going because now she can feel warm spread into her legs, little shocks running under her skin when his thumb rubs over her nipple. Her mouth goes dry, Pavlovian for another kiss, so she leans into his hands, encourages him to squeeze and rub at her breasts more insistently, and pulls him into a kiss that she hopes tells him just how much she likes his hands on her. He whimpers when she pushes her tongue deep into his mouth and strokes along the roof of his mouth, and she’s certain he’s got the idea.

As she shifts closer, the branch rubs between her legs and she instantly wishes they were anywhere else but here. She grumbles and stops the kiss, fondly smiling at Jared’s lost look when he realizes she’s moving out of reach of his mouth.

“But I wasn’t done,” he jokingly whines.

She pets his head, stroking through his hair. “I know, but we can’t make out in the tree all night.”

Jared moves his legs and grimaces. “Yeah, my ass is getting kinda sore.” Then he frowns at his lap and she sees that he’s distraught over the fact that he now has a hard-on. “I can’t get down now.”

Danneel knows she shouldn’t laugh, and the noise she makes comes out more like an sympathetic sob.

Inside Jared’s house, he puts his sister in front of the TV with the Disney channel blaring then leads Danneel up to his room and locks the door. He takes his shirt right off and his chest rises and falls quickly as he looks over her, and she quickly pulls her shirt off as well.

He all but tackles her to the bed and they’re laughing together until he kisses her hard and twists his hips against hers, nudging her legs apart so he can lie between them. Danneel feels the hard press of him between her legs and she wraps her legs around his hips and rocks up against him.

Jared moans into her mouth and pushes down against her again, wrapping his arms even tighter around her. He slows himself and lifts away from the kiss as he combs through her hair. “Have you ever done this before?”

Danneel licks her lips; she wasn’t necessarily expecting much more than this, right now, but her heart beats a little faster just thinking of it. “Yeah, back home.”

“So I’m not scaring you? Going too fast?”

“No, you’re not,” she assures him, running her hands up and down his smooth, warm back. “What about you? Or Jensen?”

He blushes and drops his head, hair shadowing most of his face. “Yeah, both of us.”

Danneel immediately thinks of last night at Jensen’s house, when she found them both shirtless. “Together?”

With a short nod, Jared admits, “Yeah, together. We were both our firsts.”

She chuckles and brushes hair away from his face, thumbing his cheek and nose then lips. “When I first got here, when I first noticed you two, I swore you were together.”

“Not really, or officially, or anything.” Jared shrugs and still won’t look at her. “And then there’s you, too.”

Instead of forcing him to explain, she pulls him down to kiss, long and slow, and then she rocks her hips to the same steady rhythm of her tongue winding with his.

Jared moves faster against her, denim scratching against denim and not giving them enough. Danneel’s ready to point that out, even when she’s not sure she’s ready to go all the way with him, just one day after they’ve all come to this agreement, but then the bed squeaks loudly and they both freeze.

“We should probably do something else,” she mumbles against his mouth. “Before it gets too loud.”

He drops his head to her chest and she gets a better idea than just stopping all together. She reaches down between them and undoes his belt. He lifts his hips and seems confused, shocked even, but lets her get the belt and jeans open before slipping his underwear down and pulling his dick out with a slow stroke.

“Oh, God, Danneel,” he pants, clenching his eyes shut.

She thinks he might come in a matter of seconds, being a teenage boy, and all that. A small part of her relishes the idea of making him come so quickly so she pulls fast and quick on his cock until he rocks forward and comes on her stomach with a harsh, bitten-off shout.

He rolls to the side with a mumbled apology and she turns to face him.

“You’re sorry for what?”

Jared grabs tissues off his bedside table and wipes away his come with a frown. “I don’t know. For coming so quickly. For coming _on_ you? It’s all pretty embarrassing.”

Danneel is thinking the exact opposite as she’s still warm all over and reliving the way his body tensed against hers. “I don’t think it was. It was kinda hot.”

“Really?” he asks, looking up, hopeful. “Jensen usually mocks me when I do that. But I couldn’t …”

“Help yourself?” she teases. She shifts closer and nips his bottom lip. “Don’t be embarrassed. I probably make awful decisions when I’m about to do that, too.”

Jared suddenly seems serious when he stares at her and runs his hand down her hip and around to the front, slipping between her legs to push against her jeans. “I wanna know that. For sure.”

Danneel nods for permission and he unbuttons her jeans and slides his hand into the front of her panties, fingers immediately rubbing at her clit. There’s no real finesse—Danneel wonders if Jensen is Jared’s only experience—but she’s young, too, and doesn’t know much aside from the frantic ways Justin did it. Jared is soft and careful about it, fingertips slipping back and forth over her pussy, which is growing wet and hot.

He kisses her as his fingers get more insistent and she whimpers into his mouth, unable to kiss him back as her muscles begin to tense up. She brings her leg up against his, pressing against his knee and grabbing his elbow as she can feel herself losing control. Biting hard at her lower lip, Danneel shuts her eyes as her orgasm takes over, making her shiver and twist even closer to him.

When he pulls his hand away, she flinches, and he instantly looks sorry. “Was that okay?”

She chuckles and moves forward to force him to his back so she can lie against his chest. “It was more than okay. It was really great.”

Jared holds her tightly and rocks a few times with the hug. “I’ll have to tell Jensen, then. He’s always mocking me for not knowing more, about girls and stuff.”

In a second, Danneel freezes and thinks of Jensen, wonders what he’s doing right now, what he’d think of them messing around without him.

Danneel hears a hearty “Good morning!” as soon as she’s shut the front door.

She adjusts her backpack and slowly turns to Jensen walking towards her. It’s the first time he’s met her before school and she’s instantly paranoid that he’s come to confront her about what happened with Jared last night.

“Hi, how are you?” she asks tightly before he takes her hand and pulls her down the sidewalk and out onto the street.

He swings their hands together and watches for a clearing in traffic before they cross. “I’m okay, a little tired. My grandparents wouldn’t stop giving me crap last night and then I had a European History paper to write.”

Danneel frowns and adjusts her hand in his. “Did you need help with it?”

“No, it’s fine,” he insists with a smile. “I gotta figure out how to get by without you some time, right?”

She frowns again and walks a bit slower, which of course gets his attention.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“You know about Jared, don’t you?”

“What about Jared?” Jensen steps closer and takes both of her hands, fingers threading with hers. “Why do you look so upset?”

There’s guilt and pain and the feelings of utter stupidity running through her right now, and she can’t figure out how to best tell him without tearing out his heart.

“Oh, you mean last night and Jared?” he asks. “Yeah, he told me about some things.”

She looks between his eyes, checks his entire face, and while he’s not entirely joyful at the point, he doesn’t look wrecked. “You’re not pissed off? Jealous?”

Jensen glances away, takes a deep breath, and watches their hands swing a little between them. “I’m a little jealous that he got to spend time with you. I wish I was there instead of being stuck with my grandma’s lectures on not playing baseball or bothering with theater like I did in junior high. But overall it’s fine.” He looks at her and his eyes are wide and unbearably green. “As long as I get to have some time with you, too?”

Danneel instantly smiles and nods. “Of course. And I wish you were there, too.”

“Okay then, good.” He leans forward and kisses her, short and sweet but more than enough right now. “C’mon then,” he insists, pulling her forward and jogging through a few back yards. “Or we’ll be late for school.”

Clutching his hand, she follows his lead.

“You’re going to be responsible, right?” Dad asks as they stand in the foyer.

Once again, Danneel holds his travel bag while he pulls his jacket on. This time, she smiles easily with, “Yes, of course.”

He watches her for a few moments and shakes his head. “Somehow I don’t believe you this time.”

“I’ll keep an eye on her,” Gino says, joining them. He hugs Dad quickly and shoots Danneel a look. “I bet she’ll just be lame with her boyfriends anyway.”

She rolls her eyes and tries not to smile at the thought. “We’ll be fine. Say hi to Aunt Marcia for us.”

“Maybe next time I’ll bring you both with,” Dad suggests, taking his bag from her. “Then the house will stay in one piece.”

“That was totally Gino.”

“And no fighting while I’m gone.” He kisses her forehead and leaves them to watch him go.

Gino elbows her with a sigh. “Thanks for ratting on me, punk.”

“Yeah, you got into a lotta trouble, didn’t you?”

“Whatever. I’m heading out to Adam’s. Don’t start too much shit, alright?”

She huffs and pushes him as she heads out to the front stoop to wait for Jared and Jensen. They don’t make her linger too long, and once they’re coming up the walkway, she stands with a smile. Jared immediately swoops her up in a swinging hug that she squeals through. Once he puts her down, Jensen moves in for a less crazy hug, holding her close and kissing her cheek with a short sway. She’s grinning as they head inside and even as they settle on the couch to watch one of a few DVDs Jared’s brought with him.

Jared stretches out at one end of the couch with her legs in his lap as she leans back against Jensen and feels his fingers comb through her hair. Not even twenty minutes into the movie and she’s distracted by the soft touch, but she doesn’t care that the movie no longer makes sense. Instead, she tips her head back against his shoulder and smirks at him, and he smiles right back at her.

Suddenly, Jared tickles the underside of her feet. She giggles and jerks away. “Don’t do that.”

“Oh, is Danny Fanny ticklish?” Jared laughs, reaching for her leg and tickling beneath her knee.

She scoots even further from him and practically into Jensen’s lap. Jensen turns away from Jared and pulls Danneel with him so she’s tucked between him and the arm of the couch, and now they’re all laughing as Jared jumps at Jensen’s back and tries to reach for her, but can’t quite get to her.

“Keep your hands to yourself!” Jensen playfully yells at Jared.

“You’ve never said that before.” Jared lets out a dirty chuckle and swipes over Jensen’s head. He rests back on the couch with his hand spread out towards Danneel, yet this time he rubs her shoulder and winks at her. “I didn’t know you were so sensitive.”

“I didn’t know you were so mean,” she replies with a fake pout.

Jensen mocks her frown and leans in to set their foreheads together, both having to cross their eyes to keep looking at one another.

“Now _you’re_ being mean,” she whines.

“I would never,” he whispers then moves in and kisses her.

She immediately opens her mouth and presses her tongue inside his. The warmth of his mouth spreads and her cheeks heat up along with every inch of her body when he kisses her back just as deeply. He slips his arms behind her and pulls her closer. She winds her arms around his neck and shifts her legs to let him settle against her. He easily slides over her and groans deep in his chest.

Danneel hears a detached hum in the back of her mind and she realizes it’s Jared still sitting behind Jensen and watching them. She pulls back and carefully wipes her mouth, feeling guilty and slightly embarrassed for getting so lost in the kiss. Jensen ducks his head and blows out a low breath then shyly smiles at her.

“Why’d you guys stop?” Jared asks. “I was enjoying the show.”

She looks over Jensen’s shoulder and sees Jared biting his lower lip with his eyes roving over both she and Jensen. She licks her lips and gently smiles when Jensen stares at her mouth. “Are you ready to go again?” she murmurs.

Jensen silently nods, but waits for her move before he kisses her just the same as before—careful and meaningful before really going for it. As the kiss gets messy, he slips his hand under her shirt and keeps it curled around her rib cage with his fingers squeezing tightly.

Danneel fights with the edge of his shirt to pull it up. She doesn’t want to stop the kiss, but she knows she wants more than this. Jensen leans back enough to yank his shirt the rest of the way up then gets right back to kissing her fully. When her hands roam his back, they meet Jared’s and they lace their fingers against the heated skin, tying them all together.

Soon enough, Jensen’s fingers stumble to unbutton her shirt and he slides low to kiss over her collarbone, even lower to the dip of her breasts. Danneel presses her head back against the couch and finds Jared staring right at her with his cheeks flushed. The sight of his handsome face all heated up, those dark eyes intent on her, makes her sit up and smile at them both with a happy sigh.

With a quiet, “Come here,” she gets up, takes both their hands, and leads them up to her room.

She’s certain Gino is out for the night with his friends, but she still closes and locks her door then goes to her bed with both of the guys following to settle on either side of her. She kisses them each in turn then sticks with Jensen, curling her hands around his shoulders when he slides his arms around her and reels her in.

Rolling onto Jensen, she straddles his waist and runs her hands over his bare chest. She drags her fingernails down over his flat stomach and toys with the buttons of his jeans. He sucks in a harsh breath, belly dipping in, and she smiles at him as she undoes his jeans.

In time, Jared begins to undress and helps Danneel out of her jeans before she sits across Jensen again. She leans forward with her hair covering them both and sets her forehead to his. They’re breathing heavy as he tugs on her hips so his hard dick rubs against her pussy, separated only by underwear yet still triggering her in the right way.

Jared slides close to rest his hand on her lower back and wedges himself in to kiss Jensen then Danneel before lying beside them and pulling his dick out to palm himself.

Her senses are on overkill as heat builds low in her gut and she watches Jared stroke his dick lazily. Worse yet is when she thinks about a month ago when they’d first messed around and he’d been so embarrassed by how quickly he was done. She better remembers feeling his dick in her hand, a hot weight that responded to her quick touches.

When Jensen cups her breasts, she thinks on Wednesday night at his house, when they’d messed around in his kitchen before his mom came home from work. When he’d squeezed and toyed with her breasts and nipples long enough to make her moan right into his mouth.

“I wanna touch you,” Jensen whispers.

She looks down at him and he seems nervous, even ashamed to have said it. She holds her breath and slowly nods. When he reaches between them to stroke over her underwear, she shivers and closes her eyes. Quickly, though, she stops his hand and blinks at him. “Do you have anything?”

Jensen pulls his hands away from her and holds her hand. “Are you sure?”

“If Jared’s okay.” She looks at him and his eyes are wide, so she’s sure she’s blown it.

“If you’re okay with me being a creeper and watching the whole time, then I’m perfectly okay.”

Danneel laughs and leans over to kiss him. “You’re the best.”

Jared runs his hand down her arm in a long caress. “No, you are.”

While Jared goes to his jeans for a condom, Danneel goes back to kissing Jensen and she can sense the new energy in him, the excitement of what they’re about to do. It’s contagious and she feels it run through her system as she kisses him short and messy until they have to separate to take off their underwear.

Jensen gets the condom on and his chest rises and falls with rushed breathing. She feels nervous, sure, but she’s eager to do this, to feel him inside her. And as he slides within her, she releases a shaky sigh until she’s seated in his lap. He remains completely still, letting her move first in a shallow roll of her hips.

Danneel sets her hands on the mattress on either side of his head and begins to slowly rock back and forth. When Jensen quietly swears and grabs her breasts, she goes a little faster and hears his breathing hitch with every quick movement. The easy slide of him in and out feels so good that she continues at that pace. Then she glances to Jared and he’s flushed all over with his hand moving swiftly over his dick, his eyes combing over the both of them until he closes his eyes and quickly jerks off to come.

She reaches for his face and rubs her fingers over his cheek when he kisses her palm. With a sigh, Jared stretches back on the mattress and continues to watch them. Now, she focuses on Jensen and quickens her hips to get them both off. Jensen grips her hips and tugs her down tight to him as he fucks up into her, and now it goes fast for them to get him off. She’s still sitting with him buried inside as he comes when Jared leans in close and starts to finger her until she’s shaking and whimpering to orgasm.

As soon as her mind calms down and she’s stopped shaking, Danneel rolls to the side so she’s settled between them. Jared rests one arm above her head to play with her hair and the other around her waist to tuck her back against him. Jensen gets rid of the condom and scoots closer to her, first kissing Jared. Her heart races at the sight of their lips wrapped around one another. 

“Next time,” Danneel murmurs, “you two are definitely going first.”

Jared laughs as he breaks the kiss then tickles her side and she screeches, jerking away and right into Jensen once again.

Jensen pulls her with him to turn to the other side of the bed. He smiles at her, eyes bright and happy. “I’ll protect you.”

Danneel grins at him and kisses him long and slow. When he’s out of breath, she rolls back to Jared and does the same.

“C’mon, Danny Fanny!” Jared shouts and Danneel laughs, excitement overcoming her nerves.

It’s all so reminiscent of when she first let them both into her life – Jensen and Jared waiting on her to make the jump. This time, however, it takes barely a second’s thought before she’s launching herself off the cliff, her stomach plummeting as she drops through thin air, and finally plunges down into the crisp, cold water. 

She thinks of taking her time to rise to the top, to admire Jared and Jensen from below, to have this quiet moment all to herself. But then she just really wants to see her guys, so she flaps her arms and legs to get up to the surface as soon as possible. When she clears the top of the water, Jensen and Jared are both smiling and cheering for her. With Jared closest, she swims towards him then launches herself at his chest. 

Jared easily grabs onto her hips, tugging her close with her legs wrapping around his hips. She settles easily with her arms around his neck, fingers playing with the damp, wavy ends of his hair. He’s staring right back at her, eyes warm and intent to hers, and she can only take it so long before she leans forward and kisses him, slipping her tongue into his mouth. 

He holds her tighter and she relishes the strong hold he has on her while his mouth is tender and careful, like he’s also storing this moment away for later. She certainly is. Especially when Jensen paddles closer and strokes his hand through her hair, kisses her shoulder, then moves to Jared to do the same. 

Danneel could stop them and make some cute comment about never being able to choose between them, or how they can’t seem to do so either. She could stop it entirely to live long in the adrenaline of diving time and time again, or could even insist their skin will wrinkle if they spend too much time here in the water. But she can’t bear to do any of those things, because she’s finally decided to just live in the moment with these two guys who have brought her back to life and opened her mind to greater horizons. 

She’s prepared to live within this moment for as long as possible. Just them, all of them, together.


End file.
